Parallax featuring Bhagat Subba, first premiered at Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa Dec. 2019, imagines indigenous narrative in futuristic scenario, where indigenous language, values and sense of belonging not only serve as cultural entity but also inspire scientific endeavours. It imagines a future where indigenous folk tales and shamanic chants will have totally different function with totally different purpose.
This work uses one of the few remaining indigenous scripts in practice today in Nepal. This Yakthung script belongs to my Limbu – also known as Yakthung – indigenous community from eastern Nepal, and the voice is an early 1991 recording from the first music album in Limbu language by Bhagat Subba. It was illegal to record and distribute indigenous music before 1989. Subba often mentions that he was denied to sing in his Limbu language in the national Radio Nepal when he passed his voice test in 1977.
This work also uses sound and images (especially of Sagittarius A*) from NASA’ s archive.
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